


Hermione Granger and the Time-Turned War

by Cysteine



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Multi, Other, Temporal Paradox, Time War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-09
Updated: 2016-12-09
Packaged: 2018-09-07 11:20:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8798914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cysteine/pseuds/Cysteine
Summary: This was a story I began to write before Opheliac, One Step Left, and 50 Flavors.It's cerebral, action-packed, and as always, dark as hell.





	1. 7 July 2000

_**7 July 2000** _

"Contrary to the Novikov self-consistency principle espoused by Russian muggle physicist of the same name, the existence of Time-turners and its authorized use by the Ministry of Magic has indeed proven time travel, and the concept of temporal paradoxes continues to plague the Unspeakables within the Department of Mysteries..."

Severus dropped the report, massaging the bridge of his nose with his fingers. _The length of his fingers and the power behind his strong hands were always a weakness of mine._ But he was also, technically, my supervisor.

"Mrs. Granger-Snape, your report is as long as your insufferable hypenated name. Please, as concise as possible, tell me what you were unable to put on less than..." he flipped through the report, "eighteen pages." He signed audibly. "At least your footnotes are formatted properly."

I smiled amicably, used to his persona even after five months of marriage. Minister Shacklebolt had approved of the wedding after a matching charm proved that we had indeed been meant to be. Even Minerva had approved of our relationship after I had proven my steadfast loyalty to this man after his five month coma in St. Mungo's. The healers had essentially given up on trying to synthesize an antivenin to a magically cross-bred snake that was unique and utterly dead.

"Hermione." His voice had brought me out of the memory; _my hands clasping his, shaving his face, and reading to him the latest in academic literature_. And by creating a universal antidote that was supposedly a violation of Golpalott's Third Law.

"If you could summarize this report."

I nodded, and explained. "The Novikov self-consistency principle states that a temporal paradox cannot occur, for as soon as the observer changes the course of history, the observer's perspective and memory of the event will change so that they would have never known that they changed history. This doesn't necessarily solve the issue of if one went back in time to kill one's self, which would make them unable to go back in time to kill themselves in the first place..."

" _Miss_. **Granger**." Severus cut me off, and my face went red.

"Yes, Sir." I replied.

"I can see how you hit eighteen pages in your report. I also remember that you were authorized to use a Time-Turner and the Unspeakables here in the Department of Mysteries had no way of monitoring any of your multiple temporal incursions. You were to suggest a way for us to hold onto a recording of how events did unfold."

"Sir, it was simple once I applied logic. A journal that added pages when necessary and a magicked quill assigned to record the important 'fixed points in time', all encased in the gyroscopic rings of a time-turner to protect it from the temporal incursions of other time-turners."

Severus looked at me with one eyebrow cocked.

"If someone were to wear a time-turner and not use it in the same room as someone who was wearing one and did, both individuals would remember the original timeline and the altered one."

"Very well. Please go ahead and make a design for constructing such a device..."

I handed him a second packet that was only half as long as the first. His cocked eyebrow went higher, and a smirk crossed his face as he continued.

"...and write up a complete cost estimate for this undertaking." He finished, flipping through the new report in his hands.

"As you're about to see, Sir, it's on the final page." I said it sweetly as his face fell flat in exasperation.

"Still insufferable..." He scolded lightly as he kissed me. He tasted as he always did, an indescribable flavor that I would always get to enjoy.

"Sir, wouldn't you like to know about the completion date for this project?" I asked, smirking with a glint of wicked playfulness in my eyes.

"It's right behind me, isn't it?" He quipped, already knowing the answer.

"I thought it would do little harm to have built it and sent it back in time with myself the moment you approved of the project." As his eyes grazed over me, they narrowed at the slight yet deliberate differences between what I was wearing and what he saw me wearing this morning.

"Hermione Granger-Snape... your earrings are different and your lip gloss is a different flavor. Where is my wife that belongs in this time frame?"

That Hermione giggled as she came out from hiding in another office.

"Told you he'd figure it out." She said to me.

"I knew he would, and I already know what he's going to say next." I replied to my other self.

"Sweet Merlin! You're not to be seen by yourself! What if you... did something... wrong?!"

The other Hermione and I exchanged a wink. "Why do you think we're here, Professor?" we said in unison. I leaned over and kissed myself full on the mouth, enjoying the unusual high-pitched whimper that my husband tried to hold back.

_Some things are just hard-wired in men, I swear..._

Severus' mouth fell open. It was always fun to get the drop on him.

"Hermione... Hermiones, do you have any idea of the ramifications of you two... snogging?"

"If I tell you exactly how I may have abused the time turner to explore my sexuality by myself, would you be upset at me, Professor?" I asked, playing up my schoolgirl fetish for all three of us. "It's just masturbation, right?"

He visibly swallowed, clearly out of his element. He recovered quickly enough, however. "I'm going to get fired for this. But bloody hell, we only live once." Severus reply was divided between the two of us.

I gave him my best doe-eyed look, pretending to be the shy innocent girl that I never was. "I already know what you do to us tonight, so why fight it?"

"I should be very cross with you and would have to punish you in a... unconventional manner."

My other self caught on quickly enough, and gave him my most seductive look.

"I think we both would deserve your punishment then, Sir."

* * *

I woke up to an oddly familiar voice calling my name. I smiled at the memory of what we did, specially since Severus had called us absolutely licentious.  _Severus now knew for certain that I was bisexual, despite never having had a girlfriend._

"Hermione, you awake yet?" The voice called. _Bugger. It was my own voice._

"Jean? You slept here last night?" I asked my future self. This naming protocol was something I had been informed about back in my second year so as to mitigate self-inflicted temporal paradoxes that I might face the following year. _It also helped Severus direct each of us last night in the throes of passionate lovemaking._ We each giggled shamelessly at the memory.

"Jean, you know what I'm thinking of?" I asked her.

"Of course, I was here last night, and remember this conversation we're having now." She replied, lifting the sheet and inspecting the red marks and welts from our tandem spanking.

"Does this make me egotistical?" I asked as my future self leered at my thighs and bum. Of course, I rolled over so that she could get a full view of our Husband's handiwork as I poked at her bruise.

"I don't think so, but Snape's got some amazing stamina." She replied. I nodded, recalling the oral train that we had going before making love to both of us.

"And to think, he's still up and doing his morning run. Hermione, I give you full permission to be a brat the next time he says he's getting to old for me." Jean smiled, getting up and turning on the shower with her wand. "But I'm still here because of work. I want to see how well this temporal recorder will work. It started as soon as it was created, so I can only hope that it is somewhere near the formation of Hogwarts at this time."

"Does it work off of temporal magical signatures or historical record-keeping? I'd love to know what happened to the magical records in the Library of Alexandria." I asked Jean.

She walked to the shower completely naked, her bum showing off a round, light-purple bruise on her right cheek. From this angle, I was kind of proud of my ass. "I don't think it will, magical records were destroyed with magical fire. It might just be a wash, since there were no other records kept from that time. All the more reason for this to exist now."

Severus came back in from his jog, sweat beading from his skin and his black water bottle placed upon a nearby counter. He looked at the two of us incredulously. "Morning, Hermiones." He was confused as to how to greet the pair of us, and Jean just chuckled at his confusion.

"I'm the future timeline wearing the time-turner; call me Jean. And I have one hell of a bruise on my right bum." Jean replied.

"Yeah, hon, I think you got a bit carried away when you were spanking me last night. It was really fun, though." I answered, realizing that my future self was sporting my bruise from last night's playtime. _Compartmentalize the data; don't over-analyze it to avoid paradox._

Severus just shook his head, and joined Jean in the shower. "Does anyone else want to write that as a letter to Schrödinger? I'm sure he'd have more fun considering that over the mortality of a cat."

A loud smack was heard from the shower, and I was pretty sure that was Jean. "Thank you Jean!" I called, getting out of the bed. Honestly, who jokes about dead or undead cats?

"Hey, is there room in there for me?" I asked.

Jean's response made me grin. "Hermione, honestly, are you a witch or not?"

Grinning, I whipped out my wand, thought of how to make and extension charm, and joined them in the shower.


	2. 8 July 2000

_**8 July 2000** _

Entering the Ministry proved to be a bit more troublesome than it was to leave it, since both Jean and I couldn't hand over both our wands as we had to get past the security measures in the Ministry.

Jean had to be disillusioned while carrying both of our wands in separate hands. _It was by mere accident that I didn't blow myself up back in my second year when I had my wand pointed at itself._

Once I was searched and proven that I wasn't smuggling a hidden wand, Jean passed me both wands around the barrier while Snape distracted the guards with his regular vindictive personality.

"I'm an **_Unspeakable_** , you daft fool! I shouldn't _be speaking_ to the likes of you!"

As he squabbled with them and had more security called in, I took both wands, pocketed them, and started to appear impatient as was part of the plan.

Jean kept sticking her hand through the detecting gateway, and the attached sneakoscope kept caterwauling loudly. This only helped annoy both the security guards, Severus, and the Aurors that were dispatched to diffuse the situation.

"Ah, Severus, I should have known. Been taking that Essence of Petulance?" Tonks said, waving the security guards away.

"Nymphadora, these guards _must_ be the Ministry's latest attempt to cross-breed wizards and trolls. It's not the idiocy but rather the smell that is getting to me."

One of the guards turned his head to sniff himself, and Jean dropped a few stink-pellets by the apparently malfunctioning gateway.

"Will someone _please_ deactivate that security gateway? There is apparently nothing going through it and it is still going off for no reason!" Severus' ability to command while aggravating everyone around him was unsurpassed.

I saw Minister Shacklebolt heading for the entrances and I let him see me looking annoyed.

"Ah, Mrs. Snape! Is your husband causing trouble again?" He smiled as he greeted me.

"As always, Minister. I swore if he did this again, I'd tell the Order that I call him my little Snapeadoodle." I didn't believe that a skin so dark could turn red until that moment.

"Snape. A. Doodle. I see. Let's go save him." As the Minister and I walked back to the entrance, Tonks was able to get them to deactivate and reset the gateway. Jean took that moment to sneak through, and waited on the other side of the gate at the rendezvous point.

"...and if you dare to accuse me of harboring or attempting to smuggle in Dark Artifacts into the Ministry, may I remind you of my service in the last war?!" Severus looked genuinely cross.  _I swear his acting ability has only improved with age._

"Yeah, I recall where your brand used to be!" A security guard spat, pulling his wand out at the reformed Death Eater.

 _Merlin, this guy is good at manipulating people._ Tonks was between the dozen security guards and Severus, holding them off at wand-point. Severus' wand was in the tray by the gateway, while his classic sneer held them off as he had his hands raised to prove that he wasn't armed.

"Ah, Minister, is it your new policy to threaten your Unspeakables with magical assault, or may I file charges against these guards for possessing _**Uncommon Stupidity?"** _ Severus drawled.

 _Uncommon Stupidity?_ I had to bite my cheek to refrain from laughing.

"No, but I may be speaking to the Wizengamot about adding that to our justice system, in cases dealing with Ministry Employees." His glare was reserved for Severus. "What bee landed in your bonnet, Snapeadoodle?"

Tonks burst out laughing, and so did the guards. He glared at me, and I quickly mumbled an apology.

"I wish. To go. To work." Severus looked incensed.

Shacklebolt waved him through. "Then go. And Williams, go home and shower. That's disgusting."

As Jean, Severus, and I got past the gateway and into an elevator, we all laughed at getting past the security measures. "Good call on the stink-pellets, Jean."

* * *

Jean was leaning over the journal, reading the most recent page that was written.

 _"24 March 1998: Wand's Loyalty changes from Draco Lucius Malfoy and Harry James Potter. 1 May 1998: Gringott's is broken into, and Harry James Potter escapes using a dragon and violates the Statute of Secrecy. 2 May 1998: Battle of Hogwarts occurs. Tom Marvolo Riddle's death ends the war. Harry James Potter declares ownership of The Elder Wand..._ Still think he was an idiot for declaring that in front of so many people _."_

Severus beamed at Jean. "I knew the day would come when you'd call the Boy Who Lived a dunderhead."

As I looked over the specifications of the book, I tried replicating the book and quill myself outside of the protective rings that were slowly spinning around the history-recording device that mimicked a time-turner.

"Hermione, what are you doing?" Jean asked.

"Well, in order to test the control, we're going to need to have a variable to compare it to." I replied. Jean shrugged, using her wand to turn a back a few pages in the book. The quill almost seemed frustrated as it had to pause.

"Hey, we're in here! _'8 May 1993: Hermione Jean Granger and Penelope Clearwater petrified by Basilisk. Rubeus Hagrid arrested, Albus Dumbledore removed as Headmaster of Hogwarts.'_ I didn't think that an event like that would be important enough for this to record it." Jean kept flipping through, _"17 June, 1996: Battle in the Department of Mysteries. Ministry declares Tom Marvolo Riddle to be re-animated, Wizarding War resumes. Time storm released and destroyes Ministry's collection of Time-Turners."_

I flipped through my copy, and noticed that fewer points in time were showing up. "Severus, how come my version of this journal isn't showing the Battle in the Department of Mysteries?"

An alarm went off, sealing off the Department. "Jane, someone broke in! Severus, where are you?!"

I looked around and Severus was gone. The laboratory looked different, save for the self-writing book protected by the rotating rings.

"HERMIONE, HIDE!" Jane yelled, pulling out her time-turner, "Someone's re-writing time! **_We_ ** may be the ones who 'broke in'!"

As Jane spun her time-turner to escape, I was confronted by dozen Ministry security officials. Each of them had their wands trained on me, but were waiting for the order to attack. My blood ran cold.  _They were wearing the robes used back when Voldemort ran things._

A slow clap broke the silence, and I saw the blonde hair of Draco Malfoy looking smugly at me. " _Brightest Witch of her age_ , reduced to a fugitive breaking into the Department of Mysteries. I'm going to watch the Dementors kiss you, **_Mudblood_**."


	3. 17 June 1996

_**17 June 1996** _

_Dammit! I left Hermione in 2000 at the mercy of Draco Malfoy. If she dies, I die!_

I've got to think of a plan. Fast. The alarms went off again, sealing the Department of Mysteries. _Damn time-turners don't make me move locations._

As I looked at the ministry officials, the Head Unspeakable stopped me and I had one shot to prove myself.

"Who are you, and how did you end up here?" Broderick Bode, Unspeakable, called out to me.

"I cannot say who I am, Broderick. I'm not supposed to be here yet." I raised my eyebrows in that ' _please get my message_ ' way.

"Who is your handler, then? Nobody is allowed to go outside of their employment era!" It was well-known to those who work in the Time Chamber that they were supposed to stay within the time periods that they were known to work within the Department of Mysteries.

"Have you talked to Croaker?" I asked, hoping that there was some warning among the Hall of Prophecy.

"No. Wait... How do you know about him? And who trained you!" Bode demanded, whipping his wand out.

"I CANNOT SAY, BODE! You wouldn't believe me anyways. Trelawney's prophecy came true!"

"Yeah, we know that You-Know-Who was killed by The Boy Who Lived."

"Oh Merlin's bollocks! She made **another one** in 1994!" I was livid at his denseness.

"Okay, you didn't say 'two years ago', so I'm willing to believe you. I don't know about a second prophecy. You really want to go see Croaker? I'm going to need some sort of proof that the Time Chamber is under attack." He was following protocol the best he could, but right now it was hampering my efforts.

"Well, I have it committed to memory." There was a loud banging at the entrance of the Department of Mysteries. Whomever was there was magnifying his sound.

"OPEN THIS DOOR BY ORDER OF THE MINISTER OF MAGIC!" Fudge's voice boomed.

His eyes glanced to mine. I decided to take a chance and say enough without revealing too much. "Fudge is a politician _and a coward._ He'd rather deny a problem then fight a war." I unbuttoned my blouse to show him a scar that I received in the battle by Dolohov.

"If you're attempting to show me cleavage lady, you are failing at it."  _Damn it!_

"It's a war scar that isn't there now. I wouldn't be surprised if the Minister even now is under the Imperius Curse of a Death Eater!" Bode started to understand, and we made our way to the Hall of Prophecy.

Croaker came running out, fearful. "Something is wrong with Fudge. It's not like him to grow a spine overnight."

The hall started to get colder, and a feeling of dread came over me. Instinctively, I pulled out my wand and produced my Patronus and directed it to the Entrance of the Department of Mysteries.

"Dementors! Why are Dementors in the Ministry!" Bode called out. "Merlin! Who taught you to make such a strong Patronus Charm?"

I rolled my eyes. They wouldn't believe me anyways. "Harry Freakin' Potter. You know about the Dementors at Hogwarts in 1994 and heard the rumors."

"HAND OVER THE GRANGER GIRL OR YOU ALL WILL BE SUBJECTED TO THE DEMENTOR'S KISS!" Fudge railed fiercely.  _They know it's me?_

"Croaker, the 1994 prophecy by Trelawney. It's been resolved, so can we see the transcript?" He summoned his giant book, turned to the page, and read it out loud.

"You're the muggle-born witch! Hermione Granger." My glare told him to get over it."Um, here it is. _'It will happen tonight. The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight... the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever he was. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master...'_ You-Know-Who is alive?!" Croaker cried, unwilling to accept the idea.  _How did he not know of this already?_

"Girl, here take this." Bode handed me his ring; it was a talisman keyed for the Department of Mysteries. "Go find your handler, and protect your own timeline!"

 _Severus. I have to find Severus._ "I think they already killed him in the second war against You-Know-Who, before he trained me! You need to secure all of the time-turners, someone is trying to undo history and destroy our Ministry."  _All it takes is one rogue time-turner to destroy everything..._

"Then find the one person you can trust above everyone else, and get them to help you, just get out of the Ministry's reach and Apparate out of here. Use the ring. Find me again if you can and show me this ring and I'll do whatever I can."

Putting on the ring, I turned in place, and apparated out of the reaches of the Ministry. _Draco was right, I was a fugitive._ I'm already fulfilling the false future I had seen.

I'm going to have to go to the one person I can trust more than anyone else. _I only hope that she doesn't try to kill me._

* * *

Landing at the gates of Hogwarts, I knew I'd have to avoid Umbridge and blend in without standing out. Merlin forgive me. I thought as I transformed myself to look like Severus Snape and headed out to the Library. Once I found my favorite reading nook, I pulled out my time-turner and turned to 7 May 1993.


	4. 7 May, 1993

**_7 May, 1993_ **

Taking a deep breath, I decided to not out myself to my pre-time-turning self. She already knew about the time-turners, but hadn't been visited by myself yet.

"Miss Granger." I said, attempting to do the voice of my husband and Potions' Master.

"Professor Snape!" She jumped, almost pointing her wand at me. _Please don't do that, the wands cannot handle the temporal paradox!_

"You are overloading your schedule for next year; courses that you desire overlap." I said, knowing that she had already spoken to McGonagall about this.

"I... I'm not supposed to talk about how I'll get to all of my classes in time." She replied, knowing that Snape wasn't supposed to know about it yet. She was looking at me suspiciously.  _Right, I'm smart enough to see through this._ I started remembering this conversation that we hadn't had yet and the deja vu was starting to hurt.

_Compartmentalize and don't analyze._

"Keep your wand away from me, Hermione. You've already been informed about the Novikov self-consistency principle, yes?" I said, knowing that my voice isn't convincing.

"I do, Sir. But it's a flawed principle. Time travel does indeed exist, and theoretically history can be affected. You never call me Hermione, though." She grabbed her wand and pointed it at me, and instinctively I pointed my own wand back at her... me?

Our wands faced itself, and the paradox started to make them vibrate and splinter. The pain in our hands made us instinctively lower our wands. _Thank goodness for self-preservation!_

"Who are you?" Hermione demanded, inspecting her wand for damage. "Why did my wand do that??"

"Bugger, girl! Just call me... Jean. _We cannot risk a paradox!_ " I hoped she understood me now.

Her eyes opened wide in shock. "Why are you here... and looking like that?"

"Temporal war. Someone is trying to reverse history, and I'm on the run from a Death-Eater-run Ministry. Make _certain_ you get a time-turner for next year. I don't know how far they have gone back to destroy Harry Potter, but eventually I... _we..._ work in the Department of Mysteries and design a way to protect a record of the proper timeline." I replied to her.

"I... okay. I get that, I think. But how do you know what's the proper timeline?" She asked.

" _We win the war against Voldemort._ Muggle-borns aren't locked away in Azkaban or wholesale-slaughtered by a corrupted Ministry!" She went pale at the thought.

"What do you need me to do?" She asked.

"Trust me, I will be called Jean when I'm making temporal incursions. _Your_ future version will always go by your middle name." I tousled my hair in a very non-Severus fashion. "I have to break back into the Department of Mysteries and get you the recorded timeline that is protected from whatever incursions are happening. I'll need you to help preserve and protect those key events. And you _cannot_ tell anyone... not until my Unspeakable trainer knows what's going on. He was the first to disappear; perhaps killed off in the past in order to cut me loose in the future."

_Am I being targeted on purpose?_

"Jean?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah?" I replied, curious as to what she was going to ask, and wondering why I didn't know what she was going to say.  _I thought I remembered this conversation already._

"You make Snape look handsome when he's not being a complete prat." She smiled and laughed slightly. _Right, she's finally getting over the foppish Lockhart._

"Yeah, he's a double-agent between the Death Eaters and Dumbledore. His attitude is a part of his cover, but you can trust him. His loyalty is with Lily Potter's son. He... loved her dearly. It's a really complicated thing." My face must have betrayed too much.

"That's why he hates Harry? Looks so much like the father, but has her eyes? How do you know about his love life?" Her eyes looked to my left hand, and saw the ring. _A ruby held by silver serpents._ I tried to cover it up with my right hand, but she clasped her hands over her face in shock. "Oh buggering hell!" She exclaimed.

I began to panic as my 12 year old self just realized I would marry Professor Snape someday.

"He's intelligent, really nice beneath the fake persona, and won't talk your ear off about Quidditch. He's horribly misunderstood and deserves a woman who loves him." I replied, feeling guilty for revealing this.

"Oh, okay. Wow. Any advice you can give me?" She asked as I looked at the book she was reading and conjured her a mirror.

"Make sure you use that." It was the page on Basilisks in Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them.

As I left the Library, I went down to the Dungeons and hoped that Severus was in a good mood.

* * *

I undid the wards to Severus' personal quarters and barged in, much like Snape did the first time I was in his class.

"Severus, we need to talk." As his lightning-fast reflexes put him to action, his logical side saw that I was not threatening him nor raising my wand. Perplexed, he crossed his arms and greeted me.

"Full of yourself, stick up your arse, and an almost perfect doppelganger charm. What do you want, Minerva?" _Why would he think I'm Minerva?_

"Try again, _Snapeadoodle,_ if you dare. I'm here to enlist your help against The Dark Lord's return." I replied with as much snark as he could dish out.

"I'm already in the service of one madman who makes that claim. Go find another patsy. Honestly, only a Gryffindor would dare be so bold, and only Minerva is powerful enough to pull that off." He glanced down at my left hand in shock and immediately had his wand at my throat. "That ring isn't supposed to exist!"

I raised my right hand to him to show him the DoM ring. "Neither is this one. You work for the Department of Mysteries, in the Time Chamber. I believe that one of your former Death Eaters got hold of a rogue time-turner and is attempting to undo The Dark Lord's demise, or something akin to that."

"Time-Turners cannot go that far back in time, nor can they travel forward." He sneered, secure in his knowledge. "I also do not work for the Time Chamber."

"Stop thinking linearly! They do once you start working with, in your words, 'the brightest witch of the new age'." I replied, getting frustrated with the verbal sparring.

"You're not going to tell me who you are, are you?" He asked, analyzing me for any details.

"And possibly alter time and lose you as my husband? I want to see The Dark Lord meet his true death, but I plan not to sacrifice my own future for it. I'll leave that to the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors." He actually smiled at that. After seven years of tagging along with Harry's surefire ways to get himself killed, I had to smile at it too.

"So what do you want of me, 'wife'?" He asked. I cackled loudly at that.

"How _arrogant_ of you to assume I'm a woman." I replied, unable to resist hitting his buttons.

"The question still stands." He replied, attempting to surreptitiously undo my disguise charm.

"Please, Severus, I've been married to you for years. I know your tricks." He stopped moving his wand and looked me in the eye. "I also know you can do Legilimency. I'm just asking you to protect yourself as well as Potter and his tag-alongs. And if anyone seems out of their proper place in time and isn't with me, _kill them on sight_. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go break into the place I work at with you in about seven years."

I pulled out my time-turner and set it for 5 Aug 2000, and gave the device a spin.


	5. 5 August, 2000

**_5 August, 2000_ **

Hogwarts was in shambles. It looked worse than after the war ended in May of 1998, the day I finally admitted that I was in love with Severus Snape. The walls were no more than mere rubble, and the suits of armor were twitching as if the magic had been partially broken. The scraping noise of metal on metal was getting inside my head, and I knew that this place wasn't safe. _Not if Hogwarts itself had been abandoned._

Setting up my normal perimeter spells from when we were on the run, I conjured a book and tried to get it to record the key events in this timeline. _Has Voldemort even been vanquished?_ I thought in a moment of panic. The months and the days for the events were fading, was time still in flux?

_Grindelwald defeated by Albus Dumbledore, 1945_

_Tom Riddle begins war against Ministry, 1975_

_Prophecy made to vanquish Tom Riddle, February 1980_

_Defeat of Tom Marvolo Riddle by Harry James Potter, October 1981_

_Chamber of Secrets in Hogwarts opened, September 1992_

_Reanimation of Tom Marvolo Riddle, Death of Harry James Potter, October 1993_

_Dementor Rebellion, 24 December 1993_

_Giants destroy Ministry Headquarters, 15 March 1994_

_Ministry surrenders to 'Lord Voldemort', 18 August 1996_

_Ministry begins muggle-born death march into Death Chamber, 21 January 1997_

_Department of Mysteries defects from Ministry, 22 January 1997_

_Magical Civil War begins, 23 January 1997_

_Battle of Hogwarts and death of Albus Dumbledore, 13 May 1997_

I put down the journal, my blood running cold. _Who was left to fight Voldemort?_

Was it my mistake to go back in time instead of forward and save the protected timeline? Any Death Eater could have read it and found out how to defeat Harry Potter... _like they did in the Chamber of Secrets, apparently_. 

All it would take is killing a single Phoenix before he healed Harry.  _Merlin, no!_

Turning on the spot, I apparated to The Time Chamber, hoping to make sense of all this.

I had expected to run into at least a few people hiding out or fighting under a siege. Instead it was utterly destroyed and deserted. A copy of the Daily Prophet showed a picture where muggle-born witches and wizards were being forced to go through the veil where I had seen Sirius die. The paper was over three years ago.

_It was a magical holocaust._

Searching the area, I found the time-protected journal. I already knew what key point in history that had been tampered with here, but where are all of the Death Eaters?

_Why does this place seem abandoned? Wouldn't they rebuild it?_

Shrinking the protected journal, I stored it inside my robes and disillusioned myself, eager to get more information about what this future holds.

* * *

 

The Ministry was deserted. It was never this empty, even on their holidays. It didn't appear that the place had been looted, but rather something else was going on here. A faint smell peaked my curiosity and I followed it up a few floors.

That's when the smell hit me, and I wanted to retch. I hadn't eaten, thankfully, but the stench of death was pervasive here. I felt like I was being watched, but I couldn't see any bodies. Or eyes. Or consciousness.

_Why am I smelling death but don't see anything?_

My heart was pounding in my chest, and every instinct told me that I needed to run. No idea where, or even why... just **_run._**

And I ran.

As I made it to the main entrance, the feeling of being alone and the horrible smell changed. I _knew_ I wasn't alone here, because I could no longer smell the dead. The biting coldness was masking it. Hogwarts was empty, the Ministry was empty. I couldn't Apparate into Gringott's, but I was pretty sure that they would be empty as well.

The cold snap seeped into my bones and I knew that I needed to just get out.

I turned on the spot and was then in the London Underground.

_The muggles weren't a part of this war, they weren't even a part of the death-marches, so they should be okay._

Except they weren't. The tube always ran on time, but now it was as still as a corpse, filled with bodies that no longer moved. I instantly put a bubble-head charm on to keep me from gagging on the stench of death.

 _The London Underground had become a series of catacombs._ Even trying to get my way up the stairs involved me stepping over bloated and decaying bodies of the muggles. They weren't even labeled, just chucked down here in hopes that there would be time later to identify the bodies. 

 _Nobody was taking care of this?_ Muggles knew to either bury or burn their dead.  _This is wrong._

As I made my way up the staircase, an abandoned military post was the first thing I could see. A few bodies in hazmat suits were strewn around as well. The muggles must have thought they were fighting a biotoxin, since they couldn't see their attackers.

_Muggles invoked martial law against a magical threat._

A nearby flier posted on a wall warned of the warning symptoms of the 'disease': feeling exceedingly cold, seeing a dark mist, feeling listless, and finally an irreversible catatonic state. It was the best muggle explanation for having your soul sucked out, until the bodies dies of dehydration or malnourishment.

But the skies were clear. There were no more Dementors here in the U.K. There was no electricity. No running water.

And no survivors.

* * *

It was odd, walking through the broken window of a Tesco. The food aisles were raided, and the registers destroyed.  _What good would money do now?_

After some scavenging, I feasted on tinned meat and warm soda as I looked around the ruins of the grocer. _The entire country was dead, but in a strange way it was safe._ Not even a single Dementor here; they all must have crossed the channel to France.

I remembered the times I shoplifted food under Harry's cloak, and we left money to pay for it. _Guess it doesn't matter now._ I took a knapsack, charmed it, and started filling it with supplies that were still here. _Apparently first aid supplies weren't in demand._

Looking back at the journal of this new timeline, I knew I'd have to go back and save Harry and kill the diary in the Chamber of Secrets. _This time, I will have an ally._

Let's hope he's willing to work with me, because post-apocalyptic UK is too creepy.

I had my hand on the time-turner ready to go back to May of 1993, but stopped myself.

Realizing that I have _carte blanche_ here, I turned on the spot and instead Apparated to Malfoy Manor.

I stocked up on food and medical supplies, but it wouldn't hurt to stock up on weapons...


	6. 6 August 2000

**_6 August 2000_ **

I had thought that an abandoned Ministry was the creepiest thing I've ever come across. Then I realized it was the London Underground being stuffed full of bodies. Now that I'm standing at the gates of Malfoy Manor, and it was the unkempt grass and garden as well as the destroyed front gate that was getting to me.

_Had the muggles realized who wasn't being affected by the Dementors? Could they see a wizard produce a Patronus?_

I expected some sort of magical barrier at the gates, but there was none. There weren't even any bodies here, which I'd have expected if the muggles attacked the Malfoys. The Manor itself looked creepy as it was now totally ransacked; it wasn't just the smashed windows and the muggle graffiti on the outside walls... but that it was this fortress of pureblood supremacy being brought down in such a pedestrian way.

I had always thought that this would be the final stand that the pureblood Death Eaters would make against a Ministry that they had declared war upon. _Instead they fell as victims to the very muggles that they had feared._

Walking through the garden, I did a spell to detect anyone, and realized that I was alone. _Or at least the only living person here._ I wasn't sure how to detect Inferi, or how to fight them, or even how to create them. _Is it spell or potion-based? Do the Inferi remain reanimated even after their creator dies?_

I tentatively touched the door, and realized that it was warded. I could attempt to overcome them, but it might also trigger something worse. I headed over to a smashed window and tried to enter there, but it was also warded. _Interesting_. Curious, I picked up a pebble and threw it through. It was warded to not let people in, which explained why the windows were smashed. They could have left the front door open and I still couldn't just walk in.

Gathering up my resolve, I started looking for weak points in their defense.

"GET AWAY, FILTH! I SHALL NOT LET YOU LOOT THE ANCIENT HOME OF THE MALFOYS!"

Instinctively, threw my strongest spells at the house in a fit of panic. One of them went through the window and smashed something inside.

"You're... not a muggle? Tell me your name!" The male voice boomed from inside. _He wasn't alive, maybe a portrait?_

"Hermione Sn- Granger." I called out, trying to not sound fearful.

"You're that mudblood I kept hearing about from my grandson Draco. How have you survived the Dementor Rebellion and the Muggles?"

"I just arrived here with a time-turner. I used to work for the Ministry. I'd like to come in for some warmth and to... do some research." I hedged.

"Why would I let a _mudblood_ like you into my house? For you to loot it like the muggles tried to?"

I sighed, exasperated.

"What are you protecting your home from now, Lord Malfoy?! Your children _lie **dead**_ and your family's line is **_extinguished._ ** Even now, France has probably been overrun and your most distant cousins cannot come and help you." I heard sobbing from inside, and worried that I may have tipped my hand.

"Promise me two things, Mud... girl. Use that time-turner to undo this event, and when you come inside, bury my children with dignity."

I agreed, and he lowered the protection barrier. Upon entering, I could see Draco's body by the window. The entire family had been huddled here, and Draco had been shot to death with a muggle firearm.

"Those raving muggles blamed my children for the 'outbreak', as they called it. I was unable to stop that contraption from killing my grandson, and that's when the Dementors came and scared them off. But they had swarmed, there were hundreds against a witch and a wizard. The sight of watching Draco die and Lucius losing his soul was too much for Narcissa. She put Lucius out of his misery before turning her wand on herself."

_I refused to feel pity for her._

"You do realize they all simply _stood there_ while Bellatrix _tortured me_ and carved **'Mudblood'**  into my arm?" I asked, the last of my venom lashing out at him. "You do also realize that Voldemort was only a Half-Blood?"

He nodded, and looked ashamed for it. "We were convinced that we were simply saving our people and our way of life. After Voldemort had been defeated by that baby, I was stricken with Dragon Pox. I had little time left, and used the last of my strength and resources to make sure that the Malfoys would survive when The Dark Lord returned. I had no idea that the Dementors had their own agenda. Please, Miss Granger, save my family."


	7. 7 August 2000

_**7 August 2000** _

I had fallen asleep reading a Dark Tome whose spine seemed to bleed as I held it, and had dreams of the night that Albus and Harry went after the fake locket. When Harry had described the sentient-like fire that Albus had conjured to hold back the Inferi, I hadn't had the heart to tell him that it was a Dark Spell.

_He was always naive about stuff like fiendfyre._

Dumbledore could apparently read the type of magic and understand the particular style and identify the caster. We had been woefully under prepared, and barely had any exposure to what was Dark and how it could have been useful. _Instead, we were given repeated warnings and no actual practice to know how to wield it._

"Look how far we got with one hand tied behind our back, Albus." I muttered to nobody in particular, remembering that there was nobody left alive in the country.

The portrait of Abraxas Malfoy chimed in with his usual scathing. "Just like him to leave the future generation unprepared in the name of 'political correctness'..."

It had been a tenuous understanding between us; he needed to help me and not hold anything back if I helped save his family, and I promised not to use what I learned to have them imprisoned later. Some of the artifacts they had for enhancing spell-casting or for blocking harmful spells was absolutely horrific, but considering the alternative, wielding a Hand of Glory would definitely be the lesser of the two evils.

I had wanted to snap at Abraxas and tell him that he was wrong, but a part of me realized that he had a point. _If the Pureblood culture were allowed to understand the Muggles, and the Muggles were taught why the Purebloods did what they did, this divisive wall may never have gotten so bad with the Muggle-born._

We had debated endlessly about the increase in Squib births while refusing to accept the idea that inbreeding may have affected the offspring.

"Most of the Pureblood families now are somehow related to each other here in Great Britain. Do you expect us to simply import people to breed with like we're seeking out pedigree dogs?!" Abraxas Malfoy railed.

"Did you ever see Marcus Flint? All aggression, no intelligence! _Classic signs of an inbred dog!_ Even Harry thought that someone had mated with a Troll for those kind of looks and having to repeat a year at Hogwarts!"

Abraxas tried to retort, but found himself coughing to hide his laugh. "The Flint's never had good looks to begin with... but to have to repeat a year? I've also heard that you outshone my grandson. Forgive me for saying this, but I never thought that a Mud... well, someone who hadn't lived in a magical world their entire lifetime would do as well."

I nodded, understanding that this was the closest thing to a compliment I might ever get from the Malfoy family.

"I'm going to be taking a few items with me back a few years in order to stop the Dementors from taking over." He nodded solemly, albeit uncomfortably. "Any advice for me?"

He thought about it, unsure if he should divulge it. "There's a potion... a _wand treatment_... it assists your aim. Even if you're firing blindly around a corner, yet you won't like its ingredients."

"Malfoy, out with it. France is dying even now."

"It's... based off of virgin blood. I had it devised as a present for Draco when he comes of age, but he actually refused it on moral grounds. I understand if you do as well. Besides offering that, never flinch when casting. If you're going to do something, follow through even if it turns out to be wrong after the fact. And keep the Dementors from reaching Stonehenge."

My blood ran cold. "What did they do at Stonehenge?"

" _They finished building it._ Wizards had speculated that the gateway is the exact opposite of the archway locked in the Department of Mysteries. Nobody could agree though on what it would actually do... until it was too late."

My aura be damned, I cursed as I decided my next course of action.

"Where's that bloody potion, Abraxas?"

* * *

 

I wanted to curse Abraxas for telling me about the 'wand treatment'. I wanted to rant and yell at the Wizarding Population as a whole for what they had let happen.

Mostly, I wanted to not have to do what I had already agreed to. It was a disgusting potion, and having read up days on end about Dark Magic and Blood Magic left little for me to retch at. I had to treat both my wand and my wand hand with the congealing potion, which was both thick and slick as if I had been reaching inside of a corpse. The potion was perpetually warm, however, and the thicker parts that I had thought was simply undissolved ingredients would forever remain in my mind as 'ingredients'.

The book I had read from was using euphemisms purposefully, since I believe that the authors wanted to white-wash the details. _'Allow potion to dissipate'_ meant to not wipe or clean it off of my hand or wand. I was having to let the blood be absorbed into me, linking myself and my wand together in a common cause. _To spill the blood of my enemies._

I wanted to retch at this, but knew that I was doing it for the greater good. _One that didn't exist anymore._

"Abraxas? This virgin blood... was she compensated for her blood?" I asked. _Why am I asking this? Peace of mind?_

"The blood wasn't taken from a witch when she lost her virginity." I didn't like the sound of that, nor the lack of if the losing of her virginity was willfully.

"She was sacrificed, wasn't she?" I asked, my fury growing cold. "She was a Mudblood killed like a stuck pig!" I screamed the last part, knowing that I could have turned into a potions ingredient.

_This was created through human sacrifice._

"She was a _casualty turned trophy_ from the first war." Abraxas said dryly. "We dared not refuse such a gift."

I looked through my bag of goodies: Cloak of Erebus, Torch of the Torquemada, Blade of Thanatos, Hand of Glory, and a Witch's Bottle. If there were a Ministry of Magic anymore, I'd get the Kiss just for having these.

"Thank you for your assistance, Abraxas." I said, pulling the Cloak of Erebus over me. The entire room fell into darkness, and I refrained from pulling out the Hand of Glory. _The temptation to use these items were already having their pull on me._

"I won't be your ally in the past, Miss Granger. Remember that. And keep the Dementors from finishing Stonehenge." He warned.

I looked back at the affected timeline. _I had to save Harry from the Chamber of Secrets._ Someone had changed the timeline there, and I had no idea whom my enemy would be.

 _But they also had no idea that I was coming for them, either._ I adjusted my Time-Turner for September 1992. Nobody could know when I was going and I had no idea whom I was looking for. And Hermione, my past self, hasn't been enlisted to help me fight yet.

Praying for guidance, I apparated into Hogwarts and spun the time-turner to reach my temporal destination.

_Home sweet fucking-trying-to-kill-me home._


	8. 8 September 1992

_**8 September 1992** _

I nearly vomited from the temporal shift, but was glad to be in one piece. I stripped myself of my cloak and disillusioned myself so as not to raise suspicion.

 _Do I have any allies in this time frame?_ Not Hermione, not even Snape... _Dobby?_

I shook my head at the thought. He hadn't been freed yet; the only thing that I had in my favor was that nobody knew _when_ I was. Heading up to the second-floor girls' lavatory, I saw Ginny walking inside.

_Good, this is still a stable timeline, and I can follow her in._

Ginny began to speak parceltongue to the sink, and the sink turned into a passageway that lead downwards. Once the passageway was opened, the girl had turned away and left.

"So you just opened it up and left? No... you're off to vandalize the walls with 'enemies of the heir, beware'. So where is Voldemort?" I asked myself quietly.

Ginny's body turned around with an eerie slowness, until her eyes rested directly on me.

"You dare use my name, witch?"

He can see me. He can FUCKING SEE ME. I heard a hissing sound from behind me, and realized that I was in a trap. _I was between Voldemort possessing Ginny and Salazar's Basilisk._ And I doubt that Fawkes would come to my aid just yet.

_Would I be willing to use my wand against the woman who would become Harry Potter's wife? Will I have any choice?_

"I do use your name, **Voldemort.** You will not succeed in this." I replied, reaching back for my cloak again.

"You speak with a certainty and bravery that is weak like paper. I will enjoy crushing you and delving into your mind. You must be an Unspeakable." It was eerie hearing Tom Riddle's words through Ginny's voice.

"An Unspeakable? What's that?" I hedged, pulling the cloak on and bringing a veil of darkness around the surrounding area.

Hissing sounds came from both sides; he was apparently still ordering the snake to do something. The darkness itself was making me lose my bearings, but it wasn't until the deafening silence hit my ears that I realized I couldn't keep my balance and I knew I was about to fall down. Holding my wand with a deathly grip, I fired off the strongest body-bind curses I knew.

For that split second, I was actually glad that I had subjected myself to the wand treatment. I had bought myself a few minutes with the Hand of Glory and the Blade of Thanatos, and had to decide my target carefully.

 _If I kill the basilisk now, innocent children won't be petrified._ But Harry won't have this win nor his resolve to fight Voldemort, and Dobby won't save his life in Malfoy Manor. _Merlin, you damned Slytherin, how did you know when to allow evil deeds to proceed for the Greater Good?!_

I went to Ginny, pulled the diary away from her, and plunged the dagger into it.

"This won't kill you, Voldemort, but slowing you down from regaining a body is a good start." The pages bled slightly, just like some of the texts in Malfoy Manor had. After a few seconds, the pages were clean and dry as before. I was tempted to do something to the basilisk to aid Harry, but I wasn't sure what else could be done or how the outside interference changed the events here.

_Who came back and changed things in the first place? Who could I trust to ensure that it doesn't happen again?_

A swirl of wind focused around me, and I was tempted to drop to my knees and disarm myself of my wand. _Intimidation glamours, elementalmorphmagus... must be Dumbledore._

"I had told you before, Malfoy, that your Dark Artifacts are not welcomed here at Hogwarts!" Albus boomed, but was unable to find me in the darkness.

"I am not a Malfoy; I fight against Voldemort. I have simply raided his Manor for these items in order to fight him." I replied, using a disguise charm on my throat.

"Speak then and let me decide for myself if I should trust you."

"You already have. Or _will,_ in this case. The Unspeakables side with The Order once the Ministry falls. I will say no more."

"Why are you here?" He asked, bumping into Ginny.

"The Chamber of Secrets has been re-opened. From when I'm from, nobody dies and Harry gains his resolve to fight and defeat Voldemort. He also gains an ally. We believe that a rogue time turner has been used to exploit this time frame in order to see to Potter's death and the reconstitution of the Dark Lord."

"Why do you care about a single boy? You must work for the Time Chamber."

"You already know the entirety of a prophecy between Voldemort and his Chosen One. Defend the Chamber from outside temporal interference and allow things to unfold. You would do well to keep any Death Eater from entering this castle, no matter how penitent they may seem from the first war... Severus notwithstanding. The spells I used to immobilize Miss Weasley and Salazar's Basilisk will soon dissipate; the wizard within her is that strong. I suggest a strong Obliviate and to allow them on their way."

"And I am to simply trust someone immersed in Dark Magic?" Albus spat venomously.

"Severus and I simply _followed your orders_ to become Unspeakables in the first place. I have already said too much." I looked down at my book of events, and saw that the timeline was reverting towards the original one. "I know the real Albus Dumbledore, and what he's willing to do to win."

_It isn't this easy... it can't be. Whomever is affecting this timeline must know about me and is targeting me._

"I have to go, can you clean this up and let things play out as they are supposed to?" I asked, and saw him nodding.

I took out my time-turner and twisted it to the day I married Severus. March 20, 2000. As I spun forward in time, I already knew someone was going backwards and trying to find my trail.


	9. March 20, 2000

**_March 20, 2000_ **

I landed awkwardly outside of the Burrow. It was decorated as I remembered from my wedding, and a cursory look assuaged my initial fears. _Voldemort was dead, war was over, and whomever was doing the temporal incursions to alter the wizarding war didn't know who I was._ Or maybe they did. It it a single person or a 'they'? Could a time-turner take more than one person at a time? Mine never could... F _ocus, granger._

Draco simply saw me in the Department of Mysteries and was supposed to catch me. If he had figured out _when_ I was, he'd have simply killed me off before I knew I even had magic. _If I were killed in my past, would this time-turner keep me existing in this timeline anyways?_ The paradox is going to give me a headache, and maybe I'm going to cause me to never be born? _No, it was someone else who was altering time_. They may not have even known I was travelling back and forth through time. And of course a time-turner could take more than one person back in time; I took Harry back to save Buckbeak and Sirius.

 _How did I forget that?_  My compartmentalization trick was working too well.

But how were they traveling back this far? Regular time-turners had a limited range, and I was the only person to have thought about collecting all of the smashed time-turners at the same moment in time to reconstruct a more powerful one. I had to leapfrog with the same time-turner, putting extreme stress on it in a one-way gamble to recapture the chronosilicate spilled in the Battle at the Department of Mysteries. I was warned about the mental stress of excessive temporal displacement by my fellow Unspeakables, but I was going further than anyone had ever attempted. _Is someone actually hunting me, or have I become paranoid?_ In my third year, the excessive time-turning made me irritable and I was more prone to outbursts. Punching Draco may have been satisfying, but it wasn't my usual behavior for back then.

Stress. Irritability. Lost sense of grip on reality. 

_Temporal psychosis._

I had it at the end of my third year, and it could be said that I was experiencing them again now; harboring illicit artifacts and willfully accepting Dark Potions from known Death Eater sympathizers. I found my way through the Burrow, graciously smiling and waving to the Weasleys as I made my way upstairs to where Hermione would be preparing her hair and makeup.

 _They can't know that there's two of me here..._  The Cloak of Erebus was overkill; I simply needed a way to get Ginny out of that room for a few minutes. When I finally found myself alone on a staircase, I disillusioned myself and sent my Patronus to Hermione. Standing on the other side of the door, I listened carefully and hoped that I had properly disguised my voice with it.

"Hey Hermione. It's Jean. Got a moment to talk in private through the floo?" My patronus' voice was light and crisp, still feminine but not exactly my own voice. If anything, it sounded slightly American.

Ginny's voice exclaimed in panic. "Who has a bat for a patronus?!" 

Hermione lied on the spot as if she were used to it. "Pen-pal from Salem. She loves exploring caves in the Americas, but she's got... issues... this won't take more than a minute or so."

"Um... okay. I guess you'll be fine. Just remember to work in the Sleekeazy's." The door opened up and Ginny stepped out of the room, mumbling about 'horrid timing'. I took for the gap and slid into the room as Hermione's face fell in desperation.

"Jean... not now. Not today. We're getting married to Severus!" Her voice was filled with hurt, hoping that whatever disaster I was coming to her with could be held off for a few hours.

"No, Hermione... I've been out of contact with people for maybe a bit too long. I was dealing with a horrid future where there was nobody to have a conversation with because of the Dementors. Unless talking to a single portrait for almost a week while soaking your arm in dead virgin blood counts as conversation..." Putting my wand down, I started scratching at my right hand, wishing I could undo the bone-deep feeling of wrongness that had pervaded me. 

 _I was having a panic attack._  

"Jean... look at me..." Hermione soothed, pulling me into an embrace, "you're safe now. It's okay. Stay here in this moment with me, okay?"

"It's just that someone's fucking with time and maybe knows I can as well and could be trying to kill me and I ran into Ginny during our second year and I was disillusioned and FUCKING VOLDEMORT SAW ME! Saw through the spell, using Ginny's own eyes! I felt so vulnerable, Hermione..." I whimpered into her neck, letting the smell of our perfume calm me. Severus added a hint of chamomile in order to keep me from getting too excited or nervous for the ceremony, and I was thankful to him all over again for this.

I hadn't heard the sound of apparitions, but recognized the tell-tale sound of Fiendfyre roaring outside.

The door slammed open, and I was too shocked to hide myself in the moment. "We're under attack, Herm..." Ginny's voice trailed off as she trained her wand on me and threw a slicing hex that would have been lethal had Hermione not deflected the spell.

A quick parry, and I had her disarmed as Hermione tried to explain it to her.

"Ginny, it's okay. She's... I... She's here to help." I ran to the window to assess the situation, only to see a raven-haired man collapse under the flames. _Not him... please!_

"Is it the Death Eaters?" I heard the other voice ask. My eyes were stuck on the unmoving shape under the midnight black robes.

 _Nobody attacked my wedding day!!_ My head began to squeeze in pain as my memories of this event were changing.  _It did happen, and... oh Merlin!_

"No... they all are locked up or have been Kissed. It's just one wizard..." Ginny replied, still shaken from the paradox in front of her.

"Jean, what's going on out there?" Hermione asked. I swallowed and tried to speak; my throat was too constricted to talk.

"Fiendfyre. It took out the pavilion and the fire-beast is protecting the wizard who created it."

Arthur ran in, surprised at the sight of two Hermione Grangers. In his hands was a Remington M24 Sniper Rifle, and set the stand in the windowsill. "Let's see if this works through the fire..." 

Ginny was shocked at the muggle artifact as well as the two Granger girls. "Dad... what is going on?"

Hermione realized what it was and handed Arthur the shell. "Goes in right there, Arthur. Jean, you take his left flank and I take his right?"

I nodded, and we apparated out to the yard where we could do some good. Harry and Luna were trying to put out the flames with water, while Bill and Kingsley were defending them and trying to get them back inside.

"This is magical fire, Potter! That won't work while the beast still exists!" Kingsley shouted, sending a flurry of spells through the fire. A plume of fire shot out towards the wizard, and he dove out of the way, but his robes had singed.

"Percy! Get them out of here!" Bill called out as a gunshot pierced the air. Hermione and I nodded and began throwing up a magical circle in order to trap the wizard. 

Another plume of fire shot out, and washed over Bill. He threw up a shield around him, blocking the flames from consuming him. His bubble of magic kept him from being roasted alive, and for now there was nothing we could do for him.

"Jean! Finish the circle!" Hermione yelled as she carved the sigils into the ground on her side. Bill saw what we were doing, nodded his understanding, and re-directed his magic to carve the second corner for the circle. I began to make the third corner as Bill's shields went down and he was instantly incinerated.

Three of the four corners were in place, and Hermione and I were pinned down by spells being shot at us. *How is this one Wizard able to do all this?*

"We need the fourth corner inscribed!" I yelled, knowing the circle was futile without it. Another gunshot rang through the air, and a flurry of black robes appeared behind the attacking Wizard.

Severus.

He didn't take a moment to wonder why there was two of me, and instead took to finishing the circle to trap the wizard and the Fiendfyre beast. The unknown wizard re-directed the fiery creature towards him, with claws of fire trying to swipe at him. The head of this dragon-shaped beast, entirely made of flame, dove down to snap at Snape as an errant pest.

Another gunshot went through the air, and the unknown wizard grunted as the bullet made its mark. The circle was formed and we invoked it, throwing up the magical net to neutralize all of the magic inside.

Hermione looked furious in her wedding robes, magic crackling with black-blue tendrils emanating from her hands. "How DARE YOU attack me this day?! Who are you, before I kill you!" 

I looked over to where Severus was, amazed at how lucky we were to stop this madman with minimal casualties. The smell of charred flesh and burning building structures was acrid to my nose, but I didn't care. We were good. Another Weasley died though.

Hermione was trying to secure the wizard in the circle as I saw that Severus wasn't moving.

He was a bundle of dark robes at his end of the corner. 

"Severus!" I called out, breaking into a run over the charred grass. I made sure to not cross the circle's perimeter so that the net stays in place.

He didn't move.

I turned towards the hooded figure in the circle, my wand sparking darkly.

"Who are you?!" I yelled, realizing how utterly impotent we were now against him.

The figure pulled back his hood, and I saw emptiness in his eyes. Dark hair, near alabaster skin... his movements were jerky and disjointed.

 

"You think you're smart, don't you? Think you caught the bad guy? Filth like you can never win, you have no idea what you're up against!"

 

A figure appeared inside the circle, _The circle was closed!_  and disarmed the man, hitting him with a right hook punch. I couldn't tell, but it felt familiar.

 

"Yeah, well I do." As the new figure turned to face me, I was dumbstruck at seeing myself. Hermione checked on Severus, and nodded that he was okay.

 

"Oh, hello. I'm... Jane. And this..." -she took a moment to analyze the unconscious body- "sorry excuse for a wizard taught us DADA."

 

I looked down at the wizard, but couldn't recognize him. I pulled out of my thoughts and trained my wand again on 'Jane'.

 

"How did you get through the circle without breaking it?"  _WHO IS SHE??_  


 

"I found a weak point, Hermione." _She even smiles like me!_  


 

The other Hermione outside the circle approached her cautiously. "I don't know who you are or what you're playing at... but you are not me, so how did you penetrate my circle? It was sealed!"

 

The trapped 'Jane' smirked, and she knew she had us curious. "Aren't you more worried about this rogue Death Eater?"

 

"They are all dead or imprisoned. Nice try." I replied confidently.

 

"Or _incapacitated_..." she replied in a sing-song voice. It irked me to hear that.

 

As soon as Hermione figured it out, I did too. We gasped at nearly the same moment, "Crouch Jr.?"

 

"Under the Imperius Curse. No need for a soul inside, makes for a perfect possession. Someone had to have been plotting a long time to preserve him since 1994..."  _...or pulled him out of his timeline..._  

 

"Okay, well, thanks for the help, but I still don't know who you are." Hermione replied, looking annoyed. I realized just how quick to anger I used to be.

 

"Okay. Prove I'm not you." She replied, crossing her arms just like I would. _How is she so good at this? Could she be me?_  


 

"Break the circle. It should respond to you if you were the one to have ever invoked it." I replied, knowing I had gotten her. She frowned at that.

 

"Hey, fake Jane... your glamour charm's really good, but you didn't cast it over your own wand. That's ivy, mine's vine."

 

'Jane' sighed harshly, realizing she had been found out. "Call me... um, Quart. I was sent to help you out. How's Snape?"

 

*What kind of name is Quart?* Hermione shook her head as she checked on our husband... fiance? _Merlin, this is hard to keep up with..._  "He's alive but unresponsive. So start talking, or we leave you to rot in there."

 

"Unspeakables sent me. Time Chamber, just like you two. That's all I'm going to say. You know the rules. And I did get through the weak spot... _just when_ , not where." She looked at Severus again. "Can't you wake him up? He might have a concussion..."

 

Hermione had a plan, and because she thought it, I already knew what it was. We shook our heads sadly. "We're completely pants at that spell, just like the Patronus."

 

"Let me out and I'll revive him." Hermione and I gave our doppelganger a doubtful look. "You're going to have to trust me."

 

We exchanged a wary look and nodded our agreement, with Hermione breaking the circle with a sweep of her foot. Quart nodded her thanks and shuffled over to Severus, casting a series of diagnostic spells on him. As her guard was down, Hermione and I quickly undid multiple layers of glamour charms. It would have been impressive if we had the time to analyze it.

 

"Okay, he'll be fine..." 'Jane' lowered her head as she felt the magic wash off of her, voice dropping in alarm. "Stop it..."

 

Her hair had stayed long but took on the shade of obsidian. Her nose seemed to change only slightly, but what once was an upturned button took on a more imposing shape.

 

"I'm using muggle cosmetics beneath all of this, so don't get all excited." Quart replied. Severus woke and fished for his belt for a potion. Quart had already anticipated it and had a vial in his hand.

 

"Who are you... and who made this potion?"

 

"Best guy I know." Quart replied without missing a beat, smiling as Severus inspected, sniffed, then took the potion. _That's one hell of a mark of trust, or Severus is much better at detecting potions than I ever thought..._  


 

"He knows his stuff."

 

"Never said it was a bloke." The two of them looked at each other and smiled. It was short-lived, however.

 

"Stay out of my mind, Snape!" Quart replied tersely, getting up to avoid eye contact.

 

"You're well trained. So who sent/possessed Crouch Jr.?"

 

"No clue. I just know of the Time-Turned War."

 

"The Time-Turned War?" I asked, perplexed. 

 

"Required reading for any Unspeakable. Odd that a war I had to study up on is now my assignment..."

 

"So who sent you? Greenwell?" Hermione asked. _Who is Greenwell?_ I thought as I inspected Quart's appearance. She had dark red hair, almost the color of blood. It was a good dye job at least.

 

"Never heard of him, was he in charge before Dippett?" Quart asked, feigning ignorance. Somehow I could tell that she was hiding something.

 

"Nor should you have..." Snape mused, pulling his wand on her. "But there's no way that the Time Chamber would send anyone back in time this far... wearing a Dark Mark." A deft flick of his wand tore her sleeve open. Sheer panic was on her face.

 

Hermione and I both had our wands trained on her, ready to kill.

 

"Hey now, I just saved you both... three? How do you get around the paradox?" Quart asked. She seemed genuinely curious, as some sort of academic on a temporal mechanics kick. _She is probably a Ravenclaw... but with a Dark Mark?_  


 

"How does a brainy girl like you get involved with Voldemort and travel back in time..." Hermione stilled as our blood ran cold. "....or traveled forward into time to my wedding? And know the date?" Hermione reached for a silver chain around Quart's neck.

 

"Long story, but you of all people shouldn't touch my time-turner, Jane." Quart warned, her eyes burning with caution.

 

Hermione paused at that, while I dove for it. My fingers grazed the chain and burned from utter wrongness.

 

"Oh, I had that backwards, didn't I? Bugger." Quart muttered, pulling out a small vial with a bit of the Sands of Time trapped in it. "Longer story. I made a one-way jump back with the remaining chronosilicate I could collect when The Dark Lord had ordered me to kill my mother." Her eyes watered up as her lips quivered. She was pleading for forgiveness.

 

"I'm the Quarter Blood Prince."


End file.
